Peace
by ellamalfoy8
Summary: For everyone in my french class! OneShot “They call it peace, Granger. That feeling of ignorance. It looks fantastic, doesn’t it? Doesn’t it?” Slight DHr, mentions of RHr.


**A/N: Yet another random burst of insanity I've had. You know how it is, must get the ideas out. Read and review.**

**And this one shot is dedicated to everyone in my French class. Leave a comment if you guys read this; I like feedback!**

**Summary: **_"They call it peace, Granger. That feeling of ignorance. It looks fantastic, doesn't it? Doesn't it?" _DHr, angst and drabble. Sorry, no squeeing here.

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Did you really think I did?**

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**Peace**

Hermione stood alone on platform 9 and three quarters on the last day of term, all by her lonesome. All around her, the seventh years were saying goodbye to their friends, hugging and promising to owl, or see you at auror training next fall, or I wish you luck. She clutched her Weasley sweater tightly to her chest, staring blankly at the girls kissing their boyfriends goodbye temporarily, not thinking one single thing. If she thought, she would think of him, and she didn't want to do that again. Not now, at the end of an era, when she would go home to her empty house and putter around in silence, before reporting to St. Mungos to start her training. She would let these last few minutes while she could. He would have wanted her to.

"They call it peace, Granger," someone said quietly from beside her. She didn't move, she knew the silky voice, and had heard it twist and yell in pain during the battle a few months previously. Her savior. The reason she was still alive. The reason she was miserable. Malfoy watched her blink, took into account the tears that had rested in the corner of her eyes for months, only needing a tiny push to come flooding out. He didn't push. "That feeling of ignorance. It looks fantastic, doesn't it?" Hermione sniffled, netting her fingers into the worn sweater. "Doesn't it?" he asked again.

"I want it," she whispered, wishing it was her who was hugging her friends goodbye temporarily, promising to owl, planning on seeing them shortly at auror training. But it wasn't her. There were no friends left for her. The battle had taken them all away. I'll see you soon, keep in touch, wish you luck. _Goodbye_.

"We can never have that," Malfoy responded, his tone gentle, more so than she'd ever heard it. She didn't care. She just wanted to go back, leap in front of the green light, ignore his call to duck. She wanted Ron, Harry, and Ginny. Not this feeling of loss and what now?

"Why not?" she asked as she closed her eyes, feeling the green envelope her, sending wind around her, whipping her hair up, blocking her view. But there was only the red of the Hogwarts Express, the smiles of her schoolmates.

"Because we are far from ignorant, Granger. We've come this close to death, and we'll never get away from that." There it was, voiced aloud. She'd almost died. She should have died. But he'd saved her. He sighed as she shivered, cold in the summer air. "You shouldn't want that."

"But I do." And she did. "I want the kids with Ron's red hair and to have Harry be their godfather. I want the reunions and the promotions and the normality we never got. I want it, Malfoy, I want it." She was crying steadily now, for the first time since the funerals, and he only watched, unable to do more.

"But you _can't have_ it. There is nothing you can do." Hermione sobbed loudly and crumpled against him, burying her face into his shoulder. He closed his own eyes and bit his lip. There was nothing he could do to help other than be a warm body to lean on. And she was fine with that.

"I don't want the empty house and the pointless job and the regret, Malfoy, I want it like it was before! I don't want to leave home alone and come home alone and be alone, because there is no one left!" He took a deep breath that filled his lungs and stretched out his chest, before letting it go in a fast whoosh. This wasn't supposed to be his problem, but he'd made it his problem when he'd seen Lucius sneak up behind her. It only took one word, and suddenly it was his problem. And he would fix it.

"Just because they're dead doesn't mean there is no one left, Granger, Loony Lovegood is still around, as is Longbottom, and Thomas, and Patil and _me_." She shook her head frantically, and he pressed his palm against the back of her head to get her to stop. "Don't guilt yourself into panic, you're not as alone as you think you are."

"But I don't want to be without them, I don't want to live in the house Ron and I had picked out together without him!" she protested, her salty tears sinking in through the dark wizarding robes he still wore. He was still in mourning after all. Mourning for his sanity.

"Then don't live there. I have room, the manor's empty." She made a sound that was half a laugh, half a sob. But he didn't care. "Consider it, Granger. Don't go looking for things you can have, track down the things you can." He gave her a small push away from him, looked her straight in the eyes, and said, "Owl me. Goodbye Granger, I'll see you soon." Then he apparated away, leaving her once again in the crowd. She smiled through her tears as she realized he'd just given her what she had wanted. A hug, a promise to keep in touch, and an actual goodbye.

Hermione did owl Draco Malfoy. She moved in a few days later, and came home to a house that wasn't empty each day. She got the reunions, and the promotions, and eventually three little children with shiny blond hair, who had Neville Longbottom as their godfather. Draco Malfoy had been right, she could never have peace, but she had something much better. She had a life, with normality still intact.

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**A/N: I know, random much? But I like it. It only took me ten minutes to write, to be honest. Sorry if it's a little rushed. It's another for the vault of angsty ellamalfoy8 stories, that's for sure! Heh heh.**

**R&R people!**

**Final Word Count: 1074**


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